


The Fey have their say

by jecooksubether



Series: Tigereans and Weres [10]
Category: Furry (Fandom), Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Werecreatures, Gen, Original Fiction, POV First Person, Shapeshifting, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26386423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jecooksubether/pseuds/jecooksubether
Summary: Wherein we learn that Lemons + Tigereams = Bad Times; And the Fey make an appearance.
Series: Tigereans and Weres [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914835





	The Fey have their say

**August 20th, 2010**

I was slaving away in front of the flat holopanel on my workstation at work typing up the report on the latest debacle with the jeep- the electric motors I had initially specified and purchased for the liberty had worked well enough, but had burned out on us when we tried to take it four-wheeling on a course that we had taken it’s dino-eating counterpart on a week previous. The burnout and resulting short also turned the fusible links into slag as well, so I was also stuck rebuilding the main harness taps to the mini-fusion reactor that was the Tigerean’s standard power generating unit.

I had been slaving away at it for the past hour, including ordering heavier duty motors, when Sh’Meral stuck her head into the closet I laughingly called my office. She asked if I was coming with them to lunch. I nodded, finished the paragraph I was on, and saved the report before locking the terminal and prying myself out of the office.

“You need a bigger office.” Sh’Meral remarked to me as we made our way over to the lunch room by way of the reception area. I shrugged.

“Most of my time is spent either working on the jeep, working on one or more of its parts, or doing something else. Most of the research and design work is actually done at the workstation I’ve got at home in my private lab. Master T’Grlf lets me work from home unless there’s actual fabrication or assembly work to do, so I don’t mind having that closet for a workstation here.”

We had stopped in the reception area, where the new receptionist was busy reading through some of the orientation packet she had gotten a week ago when she was hired. Seeing us there, she asked, “I have a quick question regarding one of the benefits listed here- It says ‘optional grooming services for selected employees’- how does one qualify for that?”

I snickered, and flash-shifted to hybrid. “Like this, Miss Proudfur. Although I expect that our employers would probably put a limit on just how often we can use it, if only because it’s part time.”

She snickered in return, and as I watched, her normally black hair turned grey around the edges as it shortened and spread across her face, which started to lengthen into a muzzle. Her grey eyes turned yellow, and the earrings in each ear moved upward with her ears as she shifted into a werewolf. She grunted a few times as the shift occurred, but when it finished, she continued, albeit with a lower pitch and rougher delivery. “Does this mean I qualify, then? Or do I need to be in my full- wolf form?”

Sh’Meral replied. “That does qualify you. In any case, the two you are staying with until everything gets finalized will probably have you use our shipboard groomers when they come planetside, unless you already know someone here that’s qualified.”

The conversation was cut short by Mikaela walking in the door, to which Sh’Meral stated, “Ah, right on time. We were about to have lunch, and we would be honored if you could join us.”

I was about to ‘path something to her when she sent one to me {You’ll find out why Mikaela is here shortly.} I nodded, and we wandered over to one of the smaller conference rooms in the office. Ch’Mrr met us inside, and stated that he had brought in lunch already for us. As we all got seated, Mikaela explained that she was having a tea party of sorts that weekend and we were invited. I was somewhat shocked when I heard how I was to attend.

“Let me make sure I’ve got this right- You want me to stay in my full-morph form for the party, in order to observe the events, and to provide any assistance in the event things get out of hand. Keeping in mind that I’m under standing orders to not perform any effect where mundanes can see, and in fact I’m pushing it greatly by going around in public other than pink skin, explain how this is a good idea? I’m still dealing with all the added attention that the LCA whupped on me from earlier this month, mind you.”

The memories of dealing with the various and sundry alphabet agencies of the federal government had made the small twitch in my hands return, and Sh’Meral knew that she was pushing it. She raised her hand. “I realize that your government is making life difficult for you. However, the agency can’t do a thing as you are under the Empire’s protection, and the Order has made it rather clear to them that they don’t want another incident. Besides, it’s only for part of one day, and we’ll make sure that we have a good cover story that will hold up.”

I sighed heavily, and shrugged. “All, right, I’ll do it.”

The way that Sh’Meral’s eyes lit up after I agreed made me feel a lot better right until she said “Besides, we’ll need you to drive us there, and we’ll be there a bit early so we can make sure you are presentable, with bows and ribbons in your fur.”

Lunch was eaten in tribological silence as I glared at her the entire time.

After lunch was done and Mikaela had bid us adieu, I finally broke my grumpy silence and asked what Rebecca’s story was. I was told that she was recommended to the empire by Tigra, and that anything else I’d have to ask her directly, as she was not at liberty to tell. I nodded, and in the space of about ten minutes of talking to Rebecca, I found out that her vocabulary included obscenities and insults in English, German, French, primal, _trrth_ , Ute, O'odham, Japanese, Russian, Klingon, and a few other languages that I had never heard of, including what sounded a lot like what the language of Mordor, all guttural, booming and harsh. She only stopped when she noticed that I was cowering almost under eye level of the tall desk in the reception area, and then said slowly, in English, “Do not EVER. Ask me about my biological parents AGAIN. Now GET.”

I practically made a small sonic boom getting out of the reception area.

**Saturday, August 21 st, 2010**

True to the plan, I drove Sh’Meral and Ch’Mrr in of the big suburbans over to Mikaela’s house. We were there about an hour early, and Sh’Meral was dressed in a very formal outfit, and was carrying a duffel with something in it, presumably extra clothes. Ch’Mrr was dressed in his standard ‘MiB’ uniform, and I was out of place in street clothes. After we arrived, we were escorted into the sewing room, and I reluctantly down-shifted to my full form. I heard the duffel open as I was shifting, but by the time I was able to turn my head around and look it was too late. Mikaela about died of laughter when she came in to check on us ten minutes later, and I growled out, “Not a word.”

Sh’Meral motioned for me to look at the mirror, and if it were not for the fact that it was me, I would have chuckled myself. The only real visual differences between a therianthrope in full-morph and an actual animal was that the headfur is longer, and this was taken to full advantage as my headfur was now sporting several bows and ribbons, in addition to a nice looking dress collar with tags and a D-ring to attach a leash. At least I was told that the colors of the ribbons and collar matched, and as I kept looking, my mood improved. I looked at Ch’Mrr, who had been trying to stifling his laughter the entire time, winked, and I started making comments about the special flavor of insanity that drove people to weave ribbons and bows into one’s hair. It was all in jest, and Sh’Meral knew it, and said “I love you too, goof. Let’s see if they are ready to go, and no talking, remember?”

I nodded, and padded into the dining area, followed by Sh’Meral and Ch’Mrr. Just after we walked in, I involuntarily sat down as Mikaela walked in the room and I caught site of the chromatic glow around her. Now, normally when I am in my full-morph form, my vision is a strange combination of good and bad. The good? Superlative focus and range, even surpassing the best feline vision out there. The bad was that I was colorblind, and in fact, could only see in shades of grey. However, that was offset by one other positive: as I had it described to me, I had the ability to detect and magical nature of others around me. Sh’Meral had this sky-blue glow around her eyes and muzzle which intensified when she was using her magical talents. Ch’Mrr had a purple-tint around his head, indicative of his talents. If I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw a monochromatic image of myself with the eyes, paws and claws glowing a deep gold-orange. As Mikaela, Evelyn, and Abagail entered the dining area, I noted that the kids each had a very small shimmer around them matching what I remembered their eye colors to be. Mikaela’s glow, was a shimmering dancing rainbow around her entire body, and forming small ornate patterns as she walked. I blinked to mute the effect, and noted that they were now dressed in suitable outfits.

Ch’Mrr and Mikaela spent a few minutes were spent getting the car seats installed in the suburban, and then we all piled in. Ch’Mrr, with Mikaela guiding him, drove over to another house nearby that was inhabited by some friends of Mikaela’s. Along the way, Sh’Meral explained the gambit we were trying with me, and Mikaela explained that the friends were providing the space and the tea, but not the guests.

As we entered the tea room, I noted that it was immaculately set in the Victorian style, which befitted the outfits that everyone was wearing. The table in the room was large enough for eight, and had place settings already out save the tea service. Off to one corner, there was a large pillow, and I was led over to it. I took the hint and had a lie-down on the pillow. Our hosts placed the settings out, and for me, they placed a large bowl of water with ice floating in it, and I sat and watched idly at the ice cubes while the kids watched to see what I would do. I got a mental ping from Sh’Meral when the tea was delivered, and I tried my very best to quietly and neatly lap up the water in the bowl as the others enjoyed their tea.

**Two hours later**

The party had been going quite well for a while, at least to my more mundane feline senses. The kids were getting somewhat bored, the ice in my bowl had ceased to amuse me, and I noticed that Sh’Meral and our hosts were discussing things; specifically, the discussion was about lemons, which I knew caused the tigereans to have what we would describe as a severe allergic reaction. As I began to pay more attention, I noticed that the conversation was starting to get more animated and much more hostile, and I perked up a bit. I also noticed that the glow from Mikaela had intensified by quite a bit. I nudged Sh’Meral mentally [ _I think you need to calm down a bit, and change the topic._ ] What I got in reply was rather unprintable. I sighed, chuffed, and got up. Before I managed to get over to her side to be more direct, something happened that I completely did not anticipate. As I passed by one of our hosts, he took the liberty of grabbing my tail tightly and pulling as hard as he could. This was, obviously, a very bad idea and he would have gotten my complete and undivided attention for the remaining 30 seconds of his pitiful life but for what happened next.

It seemed as if time had slowed down. As I began to turn around to confront my attacker, Ch’Mrr had started to stand up, Sh’Meral’s eyes took on the same ice-blue glow as when she was begin to cast a spell, but Mikaela’s glow had vanished, replaced by what appeared to be faerie-like wings from her back. Her normally brown eyes had changed to an intense swirl of color, not blindingly bright, but clearly visible to normal sight. As she stood up, time seemed to come to a complete halt, and we all heard a clearly male voice, deep, powerful and overpowering in our minds.

*I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE FRIENDS OF MY AVATAR ARE FIGHTING. YOU WILL ALL STOP LONG ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN YOURSELVES, OR I SHALL BECOME... DISPLEASED. UNDERSTOOD?*

This was enough for me to get another look at what Mikaela had become as I mentally nodded. She no longer appeared as she normally did, but was much more male looking, with two antennae with balls of multi-colored fire on the ends protruding from her head, the wings appearing much more solid now, crystalline and shimmering with raw magical energy, her eyes completely solid white with the tiniest hint of red glow around them. I felt myself released from what I now recognized as a binding spell, and as we all acquiesced to the figure in front of us, we all were released.

*GOOD. YOU WILL TALK THIS OUT TO THE SATISFACTION OF MY AVATAR, AND I SHALL BE LISTENING THROUGH HER. DO NOT MAKE HER CALL UPON ME AGAIN.*

The next ten minutes were spent in a round of apologies from all parties. I quietly made my way around to Sh’Meral, and after ‘pathing a quick comment to her, had the chalk carefully clamped between my lips as I made my way over to Mikaela. Transferring the chalk to a paw was less difficult than it looked, and in the space of a second or two I had the channeling rune traced out on the brick tile. I nudged her, and as she put her hand on my head, I put my paw on the rune and activated it. [ _This should help restore your stored energy pool a small amount- the drain must have been terrible, and I am terribly sorry for what happened. I will have a talk with Sh_ _’Meral about this later._ ] I had been expecting her to draw on what energy I had to offer, but instead got a very unusual reply from the fey she had been channeling.

*WERE-MAGE; MY AVATAR APPRECIATES YOUR OFFERING, BUT DOES NOT REQUIRE IT. DO YOU THINK THAT I WOULD ABUSE THE ABILITIES OF ONE OF THE FEW BRIDGES WE HAVE LEFT TO YOUR WORLD OVER SUCH A TRIVIAL MATTER? THIS WAS A TEST; WE WANTED TO SEE IF WHAT THE ARCHMAGUS HAD SAID WAS TRUE; THIS WAS THE LEAST HARMFUL WAY THAT WE COULD FIND OUT WITHOUT INDUCING MORE CHAOS AND DISORDER TO YOUR WORLD AND YOUR LIFE. GO NOW, AND KNOW THAT THE FEY WILL INTERFERE WITH YOUR LIFE NO MORE, AND WILL CONSIDER OFFERS FOR ASSISTANCE WHEN THE TIME COMES.*

While I was receiving my revelation, the hosts of the party had apologized to the rest of the group for their part, and were cleaning up the table. When the fey broke the connection to me, the rune on the floor had puffed into nothingness, and Mikaela appeared as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the last ten minutes. She looked down at me, winked, and I ‘pathed to her [ _The joke_ _’s on me, it seems. Someone owes me an explanation on the way back to your place._ ]

While this was taking place, my furry companions had finished their apologies, and were herding the kids to the exit. Mikaela took the hint, said her goodbyes, and led me outside and back into the suburban. As we approached the SUV, I felt rather than heard a small spike of magic, and my enhanced sight kicked back in. The SUV had a faint blue glow inside, and I pathed to Sh’Meral [ _what did you do?_ ]. Before I got an answer, Ch’Mrr opened the door to let us inside, and I saw that the kids were all sleep. Sh’Meral stated that she felt it best if the kids were to take a short nap on the way home so that we adults could converse without causing problems. Mikaela nodded, and we all piled in for the trip.

As we drove back, Mikaela explained that the Fey had picked up on my presence when I had shifted at her house several months ago, and they became interested in me. This worried me a lot, as the Fey were normally quite uninterested in our plane of existence, according to Tigra. She also explained that she was one of the very few people who could talk to them easily, which worried me even more- One of Tigra’s warnings was not to interfere with these feybridges, and that very bad things tended to happen to those that did. Mikaela picked up on this, and with a ruffle of her hand through my headfur, told me to not worry. “The Fey that I have the largest affinity to arranged this entire event, to get a demonstration of your power. Did you not believe him when he said ‘we will no longer interfere with your life, and will consider any offers of assistance if needed’?”

I looked at her again, and sure enough, the rainbow aura was there. I nodded, and said, “I take it he is listening in now?” At her puzzled nod, I explained how I was able to tell. She nodded, and said that the fey gave her a number of abilities as well, and then proceeded to launch into exactly how I needed to make up to Rebbecca after my faux pas with her biological parents. I did have enough sense to ask if bringing an offering of Nutella instead of chocolate would help fix things as well, and it was several minutes later the Mikaela’s laughter wore down enough for her to continue.

**Monday Morning**

I had managed to get in about fifteen minutes before Rebecca did, and accordingly I was watching one of the security cameras pointed at the desk from my little hovel when she came in. She read the note, looked at the jar, and scant seconds later the phone at my desk rang after she looked up, waved a hand, and the video blacked out. I timidly picked up the phone, and was politely informed that everything was well and good again, that her personal life really was none of my business, and that there had better be several more jars on her desk tomorrow, along with a box of milkbones, otherwise she would personally be using my guts for a violin.

Hearing her ‘path to me I HEARD THAT!! That’s TWO JARS AND BOXES! after I hung up the phone and said ‘bitch’ did not help matters either.


End file.
